B: I’m puzzled too. The team had trained well, but at crunch time they just couldn’t perform.

Note: Dating back to the 1960s, this idiom refers to a critical period of time characterized by a heightened pressure to succeed, usually at or near the end of a given situation or undertaking. “Crunch” isn’t commonly used as a noun, but it seems that the word was taken up by Winston Churchill, who was fond of using it to describe challenges. For example, he reportedly said in 1939: “Whether Spain will be allowed to find its way back to sanity and health ... depends upon the general adjustment or outcome of the European crunch.”